


Condemnation of the Innocent

by thephilosophersapprentice



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Injustice: Gods Among Us, Red Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics), Young Justice (Comics)
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Injustice Fix-It, Past Character Death, Tim Drake is Secret
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-09
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2019-03-02 20:27:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13325883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thephilosophersapprentice/pseuds/thephilosophersapprentice
Summary: After Tim's death at the hands of Zod, he wakes up, not entirely corporeal, in a lab. Dick Grayson gets some company in the (semi) afterlife.





	Condemnation of the Innocent

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nightflxme](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nightflxme/gifts).



> Inspired by a conversation with A_walking_meme on how to fix Tim's death in Injustice. I could use ideas on how to continue it.

Tim gasped for air that wasn’t there, fighting miasma that tangled him like bedsheets, struggling upwards, trying to get out.

“Whoa, whoa! You’re okay. You’re okay,” someone whispered in his ear. “I’ve got you, Tim. I’ve got you.” Tim craned his head back. It felt odd, as if he was moving through something simultaneously too thick and too shapeless to be air--as if air and light were passing through him, or his soul was a few steps from his body.

“Dick?” Tim frowned. “They told me you were dead.” Dick nodded.

“So are you.” Dick’s expression changed for a fraction of a second--telling. “Sort of.” Tim struggled against the strange tangle of something that wasn’t air, trying to breathe--he wasn’t breathing, he couldn’t  _ breathe _ .

“What do you mean, ‘sort of’?!” Tim demanded.

“Well. You died. But you’re not dead in a conventional sense,” Dick said, biting his lip. Tim could see through him. He felt sick, but nothing came up, and that was almost worse--no relief. “But you’re not alive either,” Dick continued, his expression empathetic.

Tim struggled--his head banged against something hard, curved. He jerked, his body seeming to fall apart for a few moments, then reconstitute itself.

“Hey. Hey, I’ve got you,” Dick whispered. His hands passed right through Tim’s chest. Tim blinked, tears falling into puffs of mist.

Tim pushed himself up against the wall--it felt like the inside of a test tube. He could see through the glass--a lab. He was inside a lab. White coats hurried around below him. He felt an odd sense of deja vu, but he couldn’t remember why. A woman stared up at him, frowning. She looked familiar, somehow. Tim shivered, falling into mist again. When he recovered himself, the woman was gone.

* * *

 

Days passed. Dick was there, off again and on again. Tim couldn’t help but notice the way Dick sometimes shied away from him, as if there was something about Tim that bothered him. It hurt, but Tim told himself that it was only because he wasn’t exactly dead--not in the strict sense.

No one else spoke to him. Occasionally, lab-coated scientists would run “tests”--electric currents were run through the containment unit. That hurt, but not as much as when they raised the temperature in the unit--though Tim knew that the temperatures couldn’t actually harm him, he panicked, trying to fight his way through the glass, phantom pains exploding through his chest.

That night, he remembered what it had felt like to die--the searing, boiling agony of Zod’s laser vision. He cried, and Dick sat with him through the night.

* * *

 

It seemed like an eternity later. More tests had been run throughout the day, and Tim was aching and exhausted--the men in charge testing his limits.

(The worst part of it was that Tim knew that whatever they did, no matter how much it hurt, anything short of a fuel-air explosion wouldn’t be enough to kill him.)

The lights had shut off for the night. Tim had curled up at the base of the unit, seeking comfort in the familiar attitude. It didn’t help.

(Even if he got out of here, he’d never be able to feel the touch of another human being--not really.)

Movement in the lab made Tim sit up, his movements still feeling sluggish and stilted. He turned. It was the woman from earlier--her face familiar but Tim still couldn’t place her. She walked right up in front of the containment unit.

“Robin?” she whispered. “Tim?”

Tim frowned. “Have we met?” he asked. The woman blinked away tears.

“Even as a Warder, you haven’t changed at all,” she said. Tim frowned. Warder. Why was that familiar?

“It’s me, Tim. It’s Greta. Secret.” Tim swallowed hard. It  _ was _ her--years older, but still her. “What happened to you?” Greta asked. “You just went missing one day, and then years later you appear in the lab here.”

“I… got lost in the Phantom Zone. I think,” Tim said. It still felt strange to talk, for someone who wasn’t Dick to look at him and recognize him as a person and not a mist cloud. “They got me out but… Zod killed me.” Tim looked down, trying not to cry. A puff of mist evaporating off his knee told him he hadn’t succeeded.

“I know how scary it can be,” Greta said empathetically. “Come on. You got me out once. I’m getting you out of here.” She hit a button on a console and the side of the containment unit slid open. Tim stepped out and sank immediately. “You’ll get the hang of maintaining your shape,” Greta said. Tim stood up, took a step. It felt wrong, somehow. Too slow, like moving through mud. “No. Don’t try to walk. Drift, dart, or dive,” Greta said quietly, heading quickly towards the exit. Tim took a deep breath and followed, hovering anxiously next to her as she opened the door and headed down the stairs toward an exit. They made their way out into the grounds, Tim carefully following Greta’s movements. Greta walked calmly towards her car and drove out the gate. Tim was shocked she had done it so easily, but then, they were all used to breaking out of much higher-security labs.

Greta drove for a while in silence. Tim didn’t know where Dick was, but hoped that wherever he was, he’d be able to find him again.

“I’m sorry this had to happen to you,” Greta said at last.

“Not your fault,” Tim said automatically. If he had been fully corporeal, his mouth would have been dry, but as it was, he felt nothing.

Greta pulled over and twisted in her seat. “Is there anywhere you’d like to go?” she asked. Tim shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

“Your family?”

Tim blinked rapidly, trying not to cry again. “My… my dad died, about eight months after those of us who were still all in transferred to the Titans.” Greta’s eyes widened.

“I’m sorry.” Tim nodded, not meeting her eyes. “Is there anywhere else? The Titans?”

Tim shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Greta leaned forward, cupping Tim’s face in her hands. He could feel it--barely.

“You know, I still think you’re the kindest person I’ve ever met,” she said quietly. “I used to be in love with you. Or I thought I was in love with you. Maybe it’s all the same thing, in the end.” Tim frowned, opening his mouth. Greta shushed him and kept talking. “I would offer to let you stay with me, from a former Secret to another. As old friends. But somehow I don’t think that you would accept. The offer’s still open, though. If you ever need someplace to go, you can go to me. 413 Galer Road, Apartment 32. I guess you’re going to want to take off on your own, now. I want you to remember one thing, Tim. You  _ are _ a good person. You didn’t deserve to have any of this happen to you.” Greta let him go and got out of the car. Tim followed her out; it took a moment to figure out how to manipulate the handle of the car door. “Make sure you come visit me whenever,” Greta said, closing the doors and locking the car. Without a backward glance, she headed up the front walk and into the apartment building.

“I’m glad you have friends like her,” Dick said. Tim jumped, almost falling into a mist cloud again. He whirled around, one hand over his chest.

“Don’t scare me like that, Dick!” he said.

“Sorry,” Dick said, smiling unrepentantly. Tim sank heavily onto the ground, feeling every ache from the last few days of “tests.”

“What do I do now?” he moaned.


End file.
